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authentication.mdx

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title Authentication
description API keys, login, credentials, and billing

varg uses a single API key (VARG_API_KEY) for all AI generation. This key authenticates you with the varg gateway, which routes requests to the right AI provider (Fal, ElevenLabs, Higgsfield, Replicate) and handles billing.

Get your API key

Option 1: Sign up on the web

  1. Go to app.varg.ai
  2. Sign up with your email
  3. Copy your API key from the dashboard

Option 2: Log in from the CLI

bunx vargai login

This gives you two choices:

  • Email login — enter your email, receive a 6-digit code, verify it. Creates an account and API key automatically.
  • Paste API key — if you already have one from the dashboard.

Your credentials are saved to ~/.varg/credentials (permissions 0600).

Option 3: Agent-driven login (for AI agents)

AI agents can drive the login flow using curl — no interactive CLI needed:

# 1. Send OTP to user's email
curl -s -X POST https://app.varg.ai/api/auth/cli/send-otp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"email":"user@example.com"}'

# 2. User checks inbox for 6-digit code

# 3. Verify OTP (creates account + API key if needed)
curl -s -X POST https://app.varg.ai/api/auth/cli/verify-otp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"email":"user@example.com","code":"123456"}'

# Response: {"api_key":"varg_xxx","email":"...","balance_cents":0,"access_token":"..."}

Using your API key

In a .env file (recommended for projects)

VARG_API_KEY=varg_xxx

Bun auto-loads .env — no dotenv needed.

As an environment variable

export VARG_API_KEY=varg_xxx

In global credentials

The CLI saves credentials to ~/.varg/credentials:

{
  "api_key": "varg_xxx",
  "email": "user@example.com",
  "created_at": "2026-01-15T10:00:00Z"
}

The SDK automatically checks this file if VARG_API_KEY is not set in the environment.

In code

import { createVarg } from "vargai/ai"

const varg = createVarg({ apiKey: process.env.VARG_API_KEY! })

Or with the REST API:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer varg_xxx" https://api.varg.ai/v1/balance

Credits and billing

Check your balance

bunx vargai balance

Or via API:

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $VARG_API_KEY" https://api.varg.ai/v1/balance
# {"balance_cents": 10000}

1 credit = 1 cent. balance_cents: 10000 means 10,000 credits ($100).

Add credits

bunx vargai topup

This opens the billing page in your browser. Or go directly to app.varg.ai.

Available packages:

Package Credits Price
Starter 2,000 $20
Basic 5,000 $50
Popular 10,000 $100
Pro 20,000 $200
Business 50,000 $500
Enterprise 100,000 $1,000

Pricing

Action Model Credits Cost
Image nano-banana-pro 5 $0.05
Image flux-pro 25 $0.25
Video (5s) kling-v3 150 $1.50
Video (5s) seedance-2-preview 250 $2.50
Video (5s) wan-2.5 75 $0.75
Speech eleven_v3 25 $0.25
Music music_v1 25 $0.25

Cache hits are always free. Same prompt + params = $0 instant result.

CLI commands

Command Description
bunx vargai login Sign in or paste API key
bunx vargai logout Clear saved credentials
bunx vargai balance Check credit balance
bunx vargai topup Open billing page in browser

Bring Your Own Keys (BYOK)

If you have your own provider API keys (fal, ElevenLabs, etc.), you can use them through the varg gateway at $0 varg cost. See the BYOK guide for details.